The Challenge of the Times

Challenge/Times: Lecture VI: The Innate Capacities of the Nations of the World

VI.

THE INNATE CAPACITIES OFTHE
NATIONS OF THE WORLD

December 8, 1918

In the last two lectures I pointed out
that the so-called social question is not so simple as it is
usually supposed to be, and that it is necessary to take
careful account of the complicated nature of man. We must
take account of the fact that both social and antisocial
impulses exist in him and must come to expression regardless
of what social structure exists and what social ideas are
brought to realization. As we have seen, the antisocial
impulses, especially in our epoch of the consciousness soul,
play a special role. In a certain way they have an
educational mission in the evolution of humanity in that they
cause men to stand on their own feet. They will be overcome
by reason of the fact that, after the epoch of the
consciousness soul, there will follow the epoch of the spirit
self, already in course of preparation, whose essential
mission will be to bring humanity into social unity. This
will not happen, however, in such a way as is dreamed at
present by people indulging in illusions, but in such a way
that one person shall really know and be interested in the
other as a human being. In short, he shall center his
attention upon the other person so that each individual shall
acquire the capacity of comprehending the other with full
interest.

What comes to
light today as a social demand, constitutes in a certain way
a sort of skirmish or outpost action, a sort of preparation,
which naturally takes a chaotic form and gives rise to many
illusions and errors because it is only the germinal stage
for something that will come later. These illusions and
errors are due to the fact that social impulses at the
present time arise in great measure from the unconscious or
the subconscious, and are not clarified by spiritual
knowledge of the world or of humanity. This illusory form
comes especially to expression in the development of the
so-called Russian revolution. It is characterized by the fact
that in its present manifestation it has no right
relationship to what is in course of preparation as a people
in Russia for the coming sixth post-Atlantean epoch. Rather,
it is brought in out of abstractions. Thus these more or less
illusory ideals of the present Russian revolution are
especially significant in connection with a study of this
chaotic stirring within humanity in relation to something
that is to come later. We may say that the especially
characteristic head of this Russian revolution, Trotsky, who
is typical of the abstractly thinking man, living entirely in
abstraction, appears really to have not the least notion that
there is a reality in such a thing as human social life.
Something wholly alien to reality is thought out and is to be
implanted into reality.

This is not a
criticism but a mere description. The simple truth is that
one of the characteristics of our times is that the
inclination toward abstraction, toward a thinking alien to
reality, wills also to implant within reality such principles
as are simply assumed without any knowledge of the laws of
this reality. These principles are considered absolutely
right without regard whatsoever for complicated human life,
as we study it with the help of the spiritual lying at the
basis of external physical reality. But everything that is to
come into existence must arise from this reality. For that
reason, since in this case something so preeminently alien to
reality is brought forward, including in a chaotic way all
manner of impulses and instincts due to the proletariat way
of thinking, great significance therefore attaches to the
ideas that seek to be realized in this Russian revolution and
that live in these Russian revolutionary heads of the present
time.

From this point
of view they are exceedingly significant. Indeed, we can see
that in Russia persons with the most varied conceptions of
life have taken part in a brief span of time in giving shape
to the revolutionary movement. As things have been brought to
a climax in Russia, the real social problem of the present
age became actual under the influence of the war catastrophe.
From this actuality of the problem of ownership there then
developed in March 1917 the so-called February Revolution in
Russia, whose essential objective was to overthrow the
political powers that stood behind the system of ownership.
But this purely political, externally political, form of the
revolution was soon set aside in the very first stages of the
revolutionary thinking by those men who are conceived,
according to Trotsky's terminology, to be men of
understanding. They are men who, by all sorts of
speculations, clever concepts, ideas, and even clever notions
transformed into concepts, wished to bring about a social
structure. These revolutionaries comprised primarily those
persons who had already at an earlier time taken part more or
less in the forming of the social structure, the
intelligentsia, the commercial people, the industrial
circles, all of whom took human reason as their point of
departure in the effort to bring about some sort of social
formation.

Trotsky,
however, considers, with a certain justification even though
relative and one-sided, that these persons who wish to bring
about a social structure in such a way through all sorts of
speculations, with good intentions and good will, merely
delay the revolution. They have no capacity whatever, are
incapable of doing anything at all. You know on the basis of
the reflections I have presented to you that the proletariat
world view tends primarily to the judgment that nothing
whatever can be accomplished by such considerations no matter
how clever they are, even though they are based so completely
upon the foundation laid by those persons whom Trotsky calls
chatterers or tongue-waggers because they can speak so
cleverly. In other words, these rational considerations are
rejected by the proletariat world view out of a certain
instinct, which has become gradually a definite theory in
marxism. There is simply no belief that any sort of
satisfactory social structure can be brought about in the
future by any kind of rational considerations whatsoever. The
only thing that the proletariat believes is that fruitful
ideas are born only in the heads of the proletariat
themselves, in the heads of these masses who own nothing, and
out of the economic conditions in which the members of the
proletariat live. These ideas can never be born in the
bourgeoisie nor in any other class, for the reason that they
inevitably think differently because of their characteristic
ideas. Only within the class of the workers do ideas arise
that alone can give the motive force to bring about a future
social formation.

When we
consider this fact, it is clear that the inevitable
conclusion for such a head as that of Trotsky is that the
only thing to be done is to deprive the bourgeoisie of their
possessions and to lead the propertyless classes to the
position of mastery. This is something that has been in a
preparatory stage in 'such heads for decades, and they now
wish to introduce it into Russia since the great crisis has
arisen in that country. This condition was to be brought
about through the so-called October Revolution, after the
other parties — if we may so call them — were set
aside in the seizure of power by the proletariat itself. From
this point of view, which is naturally a purely abstract one
and concrete only to the extent that it makes everything
dependent upon a definite class of men, thus constituting a
reality, the leading personalities of the Russian Revolution
have guided affairs since October 1917.

Now, such a
revolutionary way of thinking gives rise to certain
difficulties. These difficulties follow in a particularly
intense form in Russia, and it was characterized by certain
special prerequisites, as you know on the basis of our
spiritual-scientific discussions. These difficulties arise
from the existent class formations throughout the world, only
they were manifest in a particularly intense way because of
Russian conditions. The first great difficulty is that the
whole social and political leadership of humanity is to be
given over to a class that was previously deprived of
everything, and had no connection whatever with so-called
culture. The proletarian, who is actually to take the
steering wheel, has previously been excluded from all those
impelling forces that established the existing power factor.
He has hitherto never taken anything to market except his own
labor, his physical capacity for handwork.

This condition
exists in all countries. Thus it will come about everywhere
that, to the extent that a revolution takes rise, the
proletariat will at first take over the leadership as a
political group. Everything, however, will continue as it
was, in a certain sense. Those persons who have hitherto held
administrative power will remain in their positions because
they are technically trained and know their jobs. In other
words, there will be no further change than that a governing
board of laymen will interject itself into the whole
apparatus brought over from ancient times. But the important
point is that this governing board of laymen is a special
type, the proletariat type, and it will be composed entirely
of proletarians. Since these persons will all belong to the
proletariat they will wish to make certain that the principle
shall apply that holds that the controlling ideas in the
future can come only out of the heads of the proletariat.
This leadership cannot be subjected to such a thing as a
national or a constituent assembly, because that would be a
certain continuation of what existed earlier. Rather, what is
to come about must constitute a radical transformation. It is
not necessary first to elect; those who are to lead are there
simply because they belong to the proletariat. It would not
be a national constituent assembly, but the dictatorship of
the proletariat.

At first, this
led to the difficulty that the proletarians, as I have Staid,
are laymen, who could merely act as overseers over those who
continued the previous administration. These individuals, of
course, clung to earlier interests. Thus, particularly in
Russia, the proletarians ascended to the top. They previously
had nothing to do with matters belonging to the state
organism and were compelled to take over everyone who
conducted things according to ideas corresponding to the
earlier state organism. They thus brought over into the
state, which was to be subjected wholly to the dictatorship
of the proletariat, interests belonging to the old bourgeois
state. These behave just like an enemy who, although not
carrying on open warfare or a counter-revolution, yet carries
over into the enemy's country everything from his country
that is to work destructively upon the other. It was in this
way that the proletarians who had taken over the leadership
in Russia looked upon the activities of the old imperial
groups as sabotage. Their first struggle was to overcome this
sabotage that consisted in the effort to bring over into the
regime they were seeking to establish what would really
constitute the support only of the old regime. The process
was the same as if a citizen of one country that had not
openly begun any sort of hostility should carry poisonous
materials into a foreign land to impregnate its fields so
that nothing would grow there. Thus the members of the
proletariat looked upon what came from these old staffs of
officials as sabotage. At first their most intensely applied
regulations were directed toward the mastery of this
sabotage. Here they showed no restraint whatever. Everything
they considered destructive they sought to root out
completely, and such a person as Trotsky is really convinced
that sabotage at present has already been overcome to a
certain extent. Those who did anything whatever to violate
the will of the people and proletariat thinking were driven
out or otherwise punished.

The difficulty,
however, is certainly not overcome, as Trotsky himself sees
perfectly well, by merely combatting so-called sabotage. He
sees that it is necessary to retain the entire body of former
administrators, but that it must be made to serve the
purposes fundamental to the leadership of the
proletariat.

Trotsky, for
instance, sees in this the first great difficulty. This is
something he believes can be overcome by his abstract means,
but he will be unable to do so. Illusion begins at this
point, for the simple reason that Trotsky is a spirit alien
to reality. This illusory element is based upon the abstract
notion that it is possible to make the whole body of
technical officials, of intellectual and commercial people,
servants of a governing board consisting entirely of members
of a dictating proletariat. It is a disbelief in the
configuration of the life of soul and spirit that is manifest
in this illusion. The simple truth is that, after a certain
length of time, the condition will revert to just what it was
previously. If the old ideas are maintained, if there is
failure to realize the truth of what I have often emphasized
here — that the social transformation must proceed out
of new thoughts — if the old technicians, the old
officials, the old generals are simply put back in their
positions, if the old is simply taken over and people do not
advance to meet the new, most of all through education, it
must revert to what it was. In other words, such a process
will not overcome conditions but will simply continue them.
It is possible to overcome sabotage for a certain length of
time by means of regulations applied by force, but it will
raise its head again and again. If it is true that a person
is dependent upon the situation in which he finds himself
— and he has been dependent for three or four
centuries, which is true with reference to modern history
— the result will be that, if he is not freed from
these relationships by means of effective thoughts that can
come only from the spiritual life, he must inevitably fall
back into the old habits of thinking and acting, just as
surely as a cat falls on all fours.

This is a point
where such thinking is revealed in its illusory character,
utterly alien to reality. I might indicate many such points,
but I wish to make clear to you only the special
configuration of this thinking. I wish to show you by means
of individual examples how this thinking betrays its utter
unreality. It is not possible simply to think out one thing
or another that should occur, but it is necessary to take
account of these impelling forces active within reality in
accordance with inherent law. If a person does not live with
these, he inevitably falls prey to illusions. One of the most
important illusions in the case of Trotsky is the following.
Trotsky knows that through the particularly intense
suppression that has been experienced by the great masses
even of the present proletariat in Russia — and this
term is justified — conditions had to come to a special
climax among these persons. He knows that the form the
revolution takes under these special conditions cannot lead
to a victory. He is out of touch with reality, but not so
completely out of touch as to prevent him from seeing in a
rational way that it is possible to bring a new social
structure into existence under the present conditions in a
region which, however extensive, is limited in comparison
with the whole earth. For this reason Trotsky counted upon a
revolutionary movement to be brought about by the proletariat
throughout the civilized world. He did not indulge in the
illusion that the Russian revolution alone could be
victorious. He knew that it depended upon the victory of the
proletariat revolution throughout the world.

Now, the whole
abstract character of Trotsky's way of conceiving things
manifested itself in these ideas. Trotsky believed in the
proletariat revolution over the whole earth. He believed that
the war would gradually take on such a character as to bring
about a sort of proletariat revolution throughout the world
end that the war would be transformed into the proletariat
revolution.

Now this
catastrophe of war will certainly be transformed into all
sorts of things. But the actuality of things has already
shown conclusively that this idea of Trotsky's is out of
touch with reality. It would have been true only if this war
catastrophe had ended in universal exhaustion, if such a
striking so-called victory — it came about in a strange
way — had not been achieved by one of the parties to
the war. This victory simply eliminates the hope that
exhaustion might come about uniformly throughout the
civilized world. What has occurred is a decisive hegemony of
the Western Powers in connection with a complete subjection
on the part of the Central and Eastern Powers. A complete
mastery over the Central and Eastern Powers by the Western
Powers is what has been established as a dominant force, and
the situation could not have been otherwise. This was clear
to those who saw into reality in this realm. Trotsky,
however, is simply a spirit alien to reality, and he ought
now to say to himself, “I have been refuted by
events.” He uttered something not without basis,
something brilliant in a merely abstract way of thinking when
he said, “The bourgeois conception of life at the
present time has no alternative but to choose between lasting
war and revolution.” The thing turned out differently.
The so-called victory of the Western Powers has taken place
— neither lasting war nor revolution. In what is
beginning in a preliminary way in the West there is no germ
for any sort of proletariat revolution. On the contrary, here
there is simply the shaping of the entire West into a
politically organized great bourgeoisie, facing the
proletariat of Central and Eastern Europe.

This is the
outcome in world history. It will certainly be transformed
again but at present exists. This is the real state of the
case, so that Trotsky ought, therefore, to reflect in an
entirely different way if he wishes today to see reality. He
would have to say to himself, “Under this shaping of
events, how can what I intended through the Russian
revolution become victorious, since one of the most important
presuppositions, the world revolution of the proletariat,
will not occur?” If he is still counting today upon
this world revolution, it is simply evidence of his complete
isolation from reality.

At still
another point the alienation from reality characterizing the
thinking of such a revolutionary manifests itself in a
peculiar way. Such revolutionists also have naturally always
referred to Prussian-German militarism as the greatest of all
evils, declaring that it must be overcome and eliminated from
the world. Now the course of events has been such that
Prussian-German militarism has been eliminated from the
world, but the militarism of the Entente will in the near
future exercise a considerable domination! Now, I do not wish
in the least to speak about this, but Trotsky himself has had
occasion t6raise the question, “What, then, is the most
important of the immediate tasks of the Russian revolution if
it wishes to maintain itself?” His answer is,
“The creation of an army!” Just this is
designated by Trotsky as the most important immediate
task.

These things
ought to receive careful attention. They need to be
thoroughly seen through. Only when these things are observed
and seen through does it occur to people to say, “Now,
I must really look a little deeper into the impelling forces
within humanity if I desire to form conceptions for myself as
to what is to result from the chaos that this war catastrophe
has developed.” But humanity is decidedly disinclined
today to penetrate into such impelling forces, which I have
described to you here from the greatest number of viewpoints
as the true, the only possible, social forces. Humanity would
be able to get under the surface of these things if the
determination were reached simply to get a firmer hold upon
the real forces dominant in man's evolution.

One extremely
characteristic expression appears again and again from the
minds of the Russian revolutionaries. In the main, what do
these members of the proletarian dictatorship really wish?
They want to make the world into a great factory
interpenetrated by a kind of bank bookkeeping system
extending over all groups. “We shall fit the old
technicians, the old officials, even the old generals into
our proletariat dictatorship,” they say, “but we
must have the bookkeeping for the total economy, the factory
accounting department in our own hands.” This is not
surprising, because the whole movement has taken its rise in
modern industry. If people would only pause to reflect that
this movement has originated with the proletariat of modern
industry, no one would be surprised that their way of
thinking, developed in connection with what these people have
seen in factories, should be applied to everything upon which
they can lay their hands. This is the natural result and
consequence of the failure of the bourgeoisie to pay
attention to the enormous expansion of the proletariat in
recent times. Even if it was inevitable that the bourgeoisie
closed their eyes and calmly permitted everything to occur,
it most certainly is not a matter of necessity that the still
more important conditions, the impelling forces existent in
the world, should continue to be unobserved. So long as these
forces are not observed, it is impossible for people to
become acquainted with social tasks.

Here it is
necessary to know how differentiated humanity is in various
parts of the world — as I said, indeed, yesterday or
the day before. It is necessary to know that the people live
in the West differently than those in the East and in the
Middle Countries. It is not possible by means of abstract
ideas, which ignore realities, to bring about any sort of
social formation. The Russian revolution is certain to suffer
shipwreck because of its great illusion and isolation from
realities.

Such illusions
can be transformed for a time into reality by people who are
free beings through education, that is, free to the extent
that a person who possesses the power can make use of it. But
reality then eliminates illusions; it cannot use them.
Reality accepts only what is in keeping with the course of
this reality. We must not forget that the most important
thing of all is the fact that we are living in the age of the
consciousness soul development, which occurs in sharply
differentiated forms throughout the world.

Let us consider
the various impelling forces underlying the civilized world
in the light of the most important European differentiations
that come to expression through language. I have often
brought to your attention the fact that the English-speaking
peoples possess the real germinal potentiality for the
development of the consciousness soul. It is important that
we should see this clearly. This is connected with everything
that happens to the world, if we may so express the matter,
under the influence of the English-speaking peoples. The
English people — I am by no means speaking of
individual persons, but of the people — are endowed
with all the impelling forces that lead to the consciousness
soul. The condition is such that the trend toward the
consciousness soul appears instinctively in them in a manner
entirely different from that characterizing the rest of
humanity. This spiritualized instinct to develop the
consciousness soul exists nowhere else in the world as it
does among the English people. There it is an instinct, and
nowhere else is that so, even among the people of Roman
descent who are united with the English-speaking peoples. The
people of Roman descent constitute really successors to what
actually lived in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. At that
time this Roman people had the instinct for what developed in
the fourth post-Atlantean epoch in special degree. Their
instincts are no longer elemental in the same way. They have
been rationalized, intellectualized and they appear in
rhetoric, through the intellect, through the psychic life as
a decorative form. They have been removed from the
instinctive life. What appears among the Latin people as a
folk temperament is altogether different from what appears as
a folk temperament among the English people. Among the
English people this trend toward the consciousness soul, this
striving of the individual person to stand upon his own feet,
is an instinct.

In other words,
what constitutes the mission of the fifth post-Atlantean
epoch is rooted in the English as an instinct, as an
impelling force arising instinctively from the soul of the
people. Now, their position in the world is connected with
this fact. This impulse is dominant within the social
structure of the English-speaking peoples. It is decisive,
and it can suppress other tendencies. The other tendencies,
as you can see from the explanations I have offered, look
toward the integration I have given of the social question,
that is, the economic impulse and the impulse of spiritual
production. If, however, you study the folk character of the
English-speaking populations psychologically, you will see
that these impulses, the economic and the spiritually
productive, are wholly overshadowed by what rises from the
instinctive impulse that tends toward the development of the
consciousness soul.

For this reason
the spheres that must shape the social life of the future
take on a special coloring among the English-speaking people.
The three spheres must in the future show themselves
especially effective in special ways, and they must be
decisive. First, politics, which must provide security.
Second, the organization of work, purely material work, the
economic order. Third is the system of spiritual production,
to which I attribute also, as I said to you, jurisprudence
and the administration of justice. These three spheres of the
social structure are, as a matter of course, overshadowed by
what constitutes the primary impulse in the case of any
differentiated peoples. The fact that a development toward
the consciousness soul works instinctively among the
English-speaking people brings it to pass that among them
— as history teaches in profusion — politics, one
branch, take on the most conspicuous form, and the dominant
position. Politics are dominated wholly by the instinctive
impulse to set men on their own feet, and to develop the
consciousness soul fully. The instinctive impulse drives in
such a direction — and this is a mere description I am
giving, and no criticism. It drives toward the result because
it is instinctive and instincts are always rooted in
self-seeking. Among the English-speaking peoples self-seeking
and political goals simply coincide. It leads to the fact
that all politics performed in an utterly naive fashion
— and this does not justify attaching any blame to a
politician of the English-speaking peoples — can be
used by the self-seeking person to fulfill thereby the
mission of the English-speaking people. It is only in this
way that you will succeed in understanding the real nature of
English politics, which are actually the dominant politics of
the entire population of the earth. If you observe the
matter, you will find that English politics are considered
everywhere as ideal — the parliamentary system with its
shuffling of majorities and minorities, etc. If you examine
the conditions in the various parliaments as these have
developed, you will see that British politics have been
determinative in the political life. But, as these politics
have spread in various places among differently constituted
peoples, they could no longer remain the same because they
are rooted, and rightly, in the self-seeking and egoism that
inevitably clings to everything of an instinctive nature.

It is this that
renders understanding so difficult when people try to grasp
the nature of English or American politics. The nuance, which
it is absolutely necessary to set clearly, is not clear at
all. This is the fact that these politics must be
self-seeking, and must rest upon impulses of a self-seeking
character. Because of their special nature, they must rest
upon self-seeking impulses. Thus, they will look upon these
self-seeking impulses as something to be taken for granted,
as the right and moral thing. No objection can be raised
here. This is not to be attacked with criticism, but to be
recognized as a necessity in world history, even a cosmic
necessity. Neither can this statement be refuted, for the
simple reason that anyone who undertakes to oppose it as a
member of the English people will always find himself on a
false path. On the basis of moral considerations, which have
nothing to do with the matter, he will deny that the politics
of the English people are self-seeking, but moral
considerations have nothing to do with this. English politics
will achieve what they bring about precisely by reason of
this instinctive character.

So, during our
fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the element of power is assigned
to this English-speaking population. We call to memory the
three figures in Goethe's fairy tale: power; phenomenon or
appearance; wisdom, knowledge. Of these three elements, power
is assigned to the English-speaking people. What they
accomplish politically in the world is possible by reason of
the fact that one of their inherent, inborn characteristics
is that they should work by way of power. To work by way of
power will be accepted during the fifth postAtlantean epoch
as something not subject to discussion. English politics are
accepted all over the world. Of course, all the injurious
effects, which, however, are always to be found in the
reality belonging to the physical plane, may be sharply
criticized, even by those belonging to the British Empire
itself. Yet British politics are accepted. It is inherent in
the evolution of our times that they are accepted, and
without any reflection, without any effort to find reasons
for this. Moreover, the reasons would never suffice, because
it is simply a matter of immediate inevitability that the
power that comes from this direction is accepted.

This is not
true as regards the people of Roman descent who are united
with the English-speaking peoples. They manifest in a certain
way the shadow, the time shadow, of what they were during the
fourth post-Atlantean epoch. Instincts have been transmuted
into the intellectual where they are no longer so elemental.
Thus, English politics are accepted as something beyond
discussion. French politics are accepted only by those whom
they are able to please. The French nature is loved in the
world to the extent that it pleases. The English nature does
not depend at all upon this. It is based upon the
incontestability with which the effective politics of the
present time fall to the share of the English nature, Because
of this situation, however, it is also possible that
precisely among the English-speaking populations, the
economic life is held within limits and is subordinate to the
dominant impulse toward self-seeking and power that is
suitable in politics. The spiritual life also, to the extent
that it belongs to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, becomes
subservient to politics. Everything enters unitedly in a
certain way into the service of politics.

Thus marxism is
simply wrong for the English-speaking world because it
presupposes politics to be an appendage of the economic
order. This is not the case among the English-speaking
peoples.

The marxist
social order is prevented from succeeding there, not by
reason of argumentation or discussion, not because of
anything that happens in the world, but through the fact that
the British Empire is constructed upon a different foundation
of realities from those upon which marxism and the marxist
proletariat builds. This is the great contrast between the
proletariat, thinking in a marxian way, and the British who
work out of the instinctive life, extending the British
Empire throughout the world. Success will not be attained by
the banking institutions or the bookkeeping system that
Trotsky wishes to introduce into Russia. It will be attained
by the great banking institution, the great institution of
finance, into which the English-speaking population is
organized by reason of its special inherent qualities. If we
investigate the manner in which an individual people is
related in its particular differentiation to the three
spheres of society that I have described to you as based upon
reality, this can be clearly seen.

Something else
must be added to this. It is extremely important. The
differentiation regarding which I spoke to you goes so far
that the person who does not strive to free himself from his
people, but rather strives for closer union — and
politics do definitely strive for such union — has
entirely different experiences in connection with the
Guardian of the Threshold from those of the person who
strives to free himself from his people. Here I come to a
point that, if you will study it thoroughly, will provide you
with the basis for distinguishing between wholesome occultism
that appears naturally throughout the world, without
differentiation as to peoples, and the kind of occultism that
enters into the political service of a people and works
outward as in the case of those societies I have mentioned.
You may ask, “How, then can I distinguish these?”
You can distinguish them if you will give close attention to
these great differentiating characteristics that I shall
present to you today.

In order for
anyone to attain to real occultism, thus serving the whole of
humanity, he must outgrow his folk character. He must in a
certain sense — here we may be permitted to use the
Indian expression — become a “homeless”
person; in the innermost nature of his soul he must not
consider himself as belonging to any one people. He must not
have impulses that serve only a single people if he desires
to advance in genuine occultism. But the kind of occultism
that desires to serve a single people in a limited way
arrives at a special experience when confronting the Guardian
of the Threshold. Thus, in the case of all those who seek for
an occult development within the societies of the
English-speaking peoples, what becomes manifest in the
presence of the Guardian of the Threshold is that they
discover at the moment when they desire to cross the
Threshold those forces living in the depths of human nature.
These become manifest when one enters the super-sensible world
and are of the same character as the destructive forces in
the universe. This is what they behold in the presence of the
Guardian of the Threshold. When they are guided in such a
society to the point of crossing the Threshold, they then
become acquainted with the evil powers of disease and death,
of everything that paralyzes and destroys. When the same
destructive forces that cause death in nature — and
they work within us also — bring about knowledge, it is
this knowledge that comes to light in those societies. Most
assuredly one does enter the super-sensible world, but one
must pass the Guardian of the Threshold. It is necessary to
pass by the Guardian of the Threshold in such a way, however,
that one has the experience of learning to know death in its
true form, as it dwells in us and also in outside nature.

This is due to
the fact that ahrimanic powers live in external nature around
us, and in it you can perceive no other than ahrimanic powers
— that is, to the extent that you remain within
external nature. You can come into contact with the
manifestation of such powers as enter into external nature in
the manner of specters. This explains the inclination of the
West to spiritualism, to the seeing of such forms as really
belong to the sensory physical world, and are not visible in
ordinary life except under special conditions. These are the
powers of death, destructive powers, ahrimanic powers. There
are absolutely no other spirits within the whole broad realm
of spiritualistic gatherings than ahrimanic spirits, even
where the spiritualistic gatherings are genuine. They are the
spirits that a person takes with him out of the sense world
when he crosses the Threshold. They go with him. They pursue
him thence. The person crosses the Threshold, and those who
accompany him are the ahrimanic demons, which he had not
previously seen but which he sees on the other side. These
are the servants of death, illness, and destruction. This
experience shocks the person into super-sensible knowledge and
brings him into the super-sensible world.

All persons who
are trained and instructed in this way for occultism have
significant experiences. This is a significant experience of
which I have spoken to you, but it is an experience growing
out of the fact that the person does not devote himself to an
occultism related to all human beings, but to a form
pertaining to a single people. There is such a
differentiation. If the assertion is made to you anywhere in
the world that when you cross the Threshold you learn
primarily the evil powers of illness and death, you may know
from this statement that the occultist in question comes from
the corner I have often described to you. You will know this
simply on the basis of the experience he relates to you in
connection with the Guardian of the Threshold.

The situation
is different in connection with the German-speaking peoples.
Into the German-speaking population something has also been
interjected. The Latin element has been interjected into the
English people in the sphere of its world power. The
German-speaking people has something that does not come from
the past but is like a flash of heat lightning betokening the
future. The Slav element, beginning in Russia, is the future,
is actually present only in its future germinal potentiality
but the Slays, who have been thrust forward, are the
vanguard, the heat lightning portending what is in course of
preparation. They signify in some way the heat lightning of
the future of the Central European German world, as the Latin
element signifies the shadows of the past of the Western
English-speaking world.

This German
element itself, however, does not possess an instinctive
basis for the development of the consciousness soul, but only
the basis through which it can be educated to the
consciousness soul. In other words, whereas in British
regions the instinctive basis for the evolution of the
consciousness soul is present, the German Middle European
must be educated into the consciousness soul if he is to make
this active within him in any way. He can achieve this only
through education. So, since the epoch of the consciousness
soul is at the same time the epoch of intellectuality, the
German who is to bring the consciousness soul in any way into
activity within himself must become an intellectual person.
Thus, the German has sought his relationship to the
consciousness soul primarily by way of intellectuality, not
by way of the instinctive life. Therefore the tasks of the
German people have been attained only by those who have taken
in hand in a certain way their own self-education. The
persons of mere instinct remain untouched by this inner
activating of the consciousness soul and remain behind in a
certain sense.

This is
likewise the reason why the British people are endowed
instinctively from the start for politics, whereas the
Germans are a non-political people and not in the least
endowed for politics. When they undertake, therefore, to
pursue a political course, they run a great risk, which will
become especially clear to you if you give particular
attention to the fact that the Germans have taken over the
task of introducing the second element into the world within
the intellectual sphere. The British folk character is power.
The German folk character is the appearing, the seeming, if
you will, the shaping of thoughts, that which is not in a
certain sense of the solid earth. In the British folk
character all is of the solid earth, but just trace the
intellectuality of the Germans. You may compare it with that
of the Greeks, except that the Greeks gave form to the
seething in accordance with its picture nature whereas the
Germans have given form to the seeming especially in relation
to its intellectualizing nature. In the last analysis, there
is nothing more beautiful than what has been formed through
Goetheanism, through Novalis, through Schelling, through all
those spirits who are truly artists in thought. This makes
the Germans a non-political people. If they are expected to
be political, they are not equal to a person who thinks
politically through his instincts.

Of the three
things that are included in Goethe's fairy tale —
power, seeming, knowledge — what has fallen to the lot
of the Germans in the intellectual epoch is the moulding of
intellectuality in the sphere of the seeming. If he is
determined, nevertheless, to take hold of politics, he runs
the risk of bringing into the sphere of reality what is
beautiful within the formation of thoughts. This is the
phenomenon, for example, of Treitschke. In reality, it will
then sometimes happen that what is really beautiful in
seeming, since it does not lie within the limits of its own
potentialities, will become something not rightfully
connected with the human being, something that may remain a
mere assertion, or must make the impression of untruthfulness
upon the world. The great danger, which can obviously be
overcome, consists in the fact that the German not only lies
when he is courteous, [Note 1] but he
may also lie when he introduces even his best talents into a
field for which he does not possess inborn potentialities. He
must first develop these potentialities within himself, but
to do so must make a special effort.

Some years ago
I said that the Englishman is something, and that the German
can only become something. This constitutes the great
difficulty in German culture. This is the reason why in the
culture of Germany and of German Austria only single
individualities stand out prominently who have taken
themselves in hand, whereas the masses do not will to occupy
themselves with thoughts, which are inherent in the instincts
of the British peoples, but will to be controlled. It is for
this reason that the population of Central Europe fell under
the domination of such lust for rulership as that of the
Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns — just because of its
non-political nature, and because the German is faced by
entirely different necessities if he wishes to achieve his
mission. He must be educated to this mission. He must in some
way be touched by what Goethe moulded into form in his Faust,
that is, by the process of becoming of the human being
between birth and death.

This is
manifest, likewise, in the presence of the Guardian of the
Threshold. If an individual remains within the German folk
character, and comes thus to the Guardian of the Threshold,
he does not observe, as do those British societies of which I
have spoken, the evil servants of illness and death. It is in
thi6 way that you can draw a distinction if you give close
attention to these things. He observes primarily how
ahrimanic and luciferic powers, the former rushing in from
the physical world and the latter rushing in from the
spiritual world, are engaged in a conflict with each other.
He sees how this struggle must be observed, since it is
really a continuously fluctuating struggle and it is never
possible to say where the victory will fall. Such a person
becomes acquainted in the presence of the Guardian of the
Threshold with what constitutes the real basis for doubt,
what is present in the world as a continuously inflamed and
undecided struggle, what brings one into a state of wavering
but at the same time educates one into looking at the world
from the most varied points of view. This will be the special
mission of the German people in spite of everything possible
to the contrary. They shall take hold upon world culture from
this side, even as the German people. Through its special
character as a people, certain things that I shall touch upon
today, for example, in the realm of knowledge, can be evolved
only through the German people.

Darwinism in
its materialistic coloring has arisen from the British
people. This is an entirely true principle — you can
read this in my book, The Riddles of Philosophy. It is an
entirely true principle that organic creatures have gradually
evolved from the imperfect to the more perfect, even up to
man. The perfect is derived from the imperfect. This
principle is absolutely true if a person observes the
physical world and in the presence of the Guardian of the
Threshold comes upon the powers of death and destruction. But
we can express this also differently; in other words, we can
say that the imperfect is derived from the perfect. Read the
chapter dealing with Preuss in my book,
Riddles of Philosophy.
We can just as well prove that the perfect
existed first and that the imperfect comes into existence
through decadence. In other words, that man existed first and
that the other kingdoms later descended from him through
decadence. This is just as correct. The situation in which a
thinking person finds himself the moment he must say one
thing is true and the other also true — to recognize
this situation in its whole fruitful character was really
granted to the German peoples alone by reason of their folk
character. This is not understood at all anywhere else in the
world. It is not at all understood in the world that people
can argue for a long time over this question, one maintaining
that the perfect beings are derived from the imperfect, as
Darwin does, and the other maintaining, as Schelling does,
that the imperfect beings are derived from the perfect. Both
are right, but from different points of view. If we look at
the spiritual process, the imperfect is derived from the
perfect; if we look at the physical, the perfect is derived
from the imperfect.

The whole world
has been trained to be able to hold firmly to one-sided
truths. The German people are tragically condemned to stupefy
themselves, thus denying their own potentiality, when they
linger in the presence of a one-sided truth. Should they
develop their own potentialities, it will become clear to
them everywhere, provided they submerge themselves to a
certain depth, that no matter what assertion is made in
regard to universal relationships, the opposite is also true.
Only by seeing the two things together is it possible
actually to see reality. We learn to recognize this truly in
the presence of the Guardian of the Threshold when we behold
the struggle between those spirits who accompany us all the
way to the Guardian of the Threshold out of the physical
world and those who rush against them from the other world,
from the super-sensible world. These are overlooked by those
societies of which I have spoken.

Again, the
situation is different in the case of the genuine
Slavic-speaking population. But I have already said that the
Western Slav has been interjected in a certain way into the
German-speaking Middle European population. Just as the Latin
element is the shadow of the past, so are the interjected
Western Slays, with whom the German-speaking population
toward the East is brought into contact, heat lightning
indicating what is to come from the Slavic peoples in future.
For this reason, they manifest in a certain directly opposite
way what the Latin population among the English shows in its
way. The Western Slays are also organized in the epoch of the
consciousness soul for intellectuality, but they transform it
into mysticism. The Germans are non-political; the Western
Slavs are also non-political, but they tend toward bringing
the spiritual world down into the physical world. They do
this even in the present life. In this way they have a
characteristic precisely opposite that, for example, of the
French or the Italian. The Italians and the French, in their
politics, are dependent upon the degree to which they please
others. The politics of England are accepted as something
beyond discussion whether it pleases or does not please. The
politics of France depends upon the degree to which the
French people please other persons. The effect of what they
have done has been dependent upon this. At certain times they
have pleased greatly. In the case of the Western Slays it is
different. Their politics are dependent upon the manner in
which their spiritual nature acts antipathetically upon the
German-speaking population. They are dependent upon the
degree to which they fail to please. If you study the destiny
of the Czechs, the Poles, the Slovenes, the Serbs, the
Western Slays, you will find that this is brought about by
the degree to which they are antipathetic and fail to please
the Middle European population. The relationship of the
French or the Italian is dependent upon how they please; the
relationship of the Poles, Slovenes, Czechs and Serbs is
dependent upon the manner in which they fail to please. If
you study history you will find this principle confirmed in a
wonderful way because one is connected with the past and the
other with the future.

The situation
is utterly different in the case of the Slavic people of the
East. They hold the germ of the future. There the situation
is such that germinating spirituality is the basic
characteristic, the most fundamental nature of the Slavic
population. Unlike the great mass of the German population
that always causes only its individualities to stand
prominently among it, the Russian people are dependent upon
the individuality who receives outside of the folk character
the revelation that ought to be received by the people. The
Russian people's culture will continue to be a culture of
revelation for a long time, even to the dawning of the sixth
post-Atlantean epoch. The Russian in greater measure than any
other person is dependent upon the seer, but he is also
receptive to what the seer brings to him.

The
English-speaking people are simply guided through their
politics to that for which it is endowed by nature. The
German-speaking people are brought by their politics to
something that really does not pertain to them, something
whereby they are easily led into a dark channel, into
untruthfulness, especially when they surrender themselves to
their instincts. This never happens, however, to those
persons with the appropriate self-education who are striving
toward intellectuality. They actually represent the German
people. The others have simply not arrived at what
constitutes the real nature of the German people and are
living below that level. This is still more true of the
Russian people. The Russian people are not only non-political
like the Germans but anti-political. It is for this reason
that British politics will be self-seeking; German politics
will burgeon into a dreamy idealism, which may have nothing
whatever to do with reality. I am not speaking in a moral
sense here but this dreamy idealism is connected with
everything untrue and theoretical, and all that comes from
theorizing is untrue. Russian politics must be utterly
untrue, since they are an alien element and do not belong to
the Russian character. When the Russian wishes to become
political on the basis of his character, he is more likely to
become ill. Among the Russian people becoming
“political” means becoming “ill.” It
signifies taking destructive forces into oneself. The Russian
is anti-political, not merely non-political. He may be
overpowered by such politicians as those who were in office
at the beginning of this war catastrophe, but these do not
work as Russians. They work as something entirely different.
The Russian, however, becomes ill when he is expected to
become a politician, for he has nothing whatever to do with
politics if he stands within his own folk character. He has
to do with something different. He has to do with what
constitutes the third element in the sense of Goethe's fairy
tale, that is, with knowledge and wisdom that is to dawn upon
humanity during the sixth postAtlantean epoch.

It is thus that
the threefold combination is distributed: power, seeming,
knowledge — West, Middle, East. This must be taken into
account. Since the Russian nature becomes ill in connection
with politics, even such politics as those of bolshevism can
first be expected of the Russians in the crassest form, in
the most radical form, because it would be possible to
inoculate the Russians with something else just as well. The
Russian nature is not only non-political, but
anti-political.

These things
become manifest in the presence of the Guardian of the
Threshold. What the Russian primarily perceives in the
presence of the Guardian of the Threshold, if he remains
within his Russian nature as an occultist, is the spirits
rushing toward him from the other side, the spirits rushing
inward from the super-sensible. He does not see the spirits
who accompany him, nor does he see the struggle between them.
He sees primarily the spirits coming across from the other
side, which are in a certain way full of light. He does not
see death. He does not see decay. He sees what, in its
sublimity, overwhelms the human being, so to speak. It puts
him in danger most of all of being ever more humble and of
throwing himself upon his knees in the presence of the
sublime. Being blinded by what comes across is the danger in
the presence of the Guardian of the Threshold for the Russian
who remains as an occultist among his own people.

Such things
must absolutely be taken into account if we are to see actual
realities. Things are actually so in the world, things
actually work in this way. Abstractions do not suffice.
Humanity has never succeeded by means of abstractions. In
earlier periods of time humanity possessed instincts, but in
the case of the English-speaking population only one instinct
exists in its spiritualized form and that is the instinct to
develop the consciousness soul. Everything else must be
consciously acquired. This is the characteristic thing for
the world, that these things must be achieved consciously.
Without knowledge of the forces working in humanity regarding
which we have spoken today, it is impossible even to think of
being able to say anything determinative about the social
element. If a person speaks of social reform without knowing
the object to which this reform is to be applied, he is
speaking like a blind man about colors.

It is this that
gives repeated occasion for the warning that the time has
actually arrived when the human being must take earnestly the
duty of learning through his life and not dealing with it
like a game to be played. By means of those things we develop
from our inherited potentialities, we get as far in our lives
as the twenty-seventh year. In future the number of years
will be continually lower. You know this on the basis of
earlier discussions. We need something that maintains us
throughout life as human beings who are in the process of
becoming and not as individuals who are finished and
completed. On the basis of these things, men will obtain an
insight into much that bears on the social question. They
will correct much of what they possess today in the form of
illusory ideas and, indeed, much must be corrected. It may
well be said that the task that lies before men can be called
a difficult one, but it can be mastered. Just consider for a
moment the fact that you are actually sitting here, and know
these things. But do not consider yourselves on that account
as specially chosen. Reflect rather upon the fact that in the
world outside there will be many others who will be able to
understand the same things. It is by no means impossible that
these ideas shall enter into human life. In other words, the
hindrance is only something artificially set up. To be sure,
this artificially erected hindrance is something terrible,
but it must be overcome for the reason that salvation can
come in no other way. May everyone in his own place do what
is possible toward overcoming the difficulties in this
field.

There is much
that needs to be done for humanity if only we allow the
seriousness of our task to fill us through and through.
First, it is necessary to achieve an insight into reality;
not to live one's life in dull drowsiness, nor permit
humanity to live its life in dull drowsiness. As we become
acquainted with individuals today we observe how little
people are inclined really to go deeply into such things. We
have surely experienced the last four or four and a half
years! Truly it was repeatedly possible to have well-meaning,
even quite intelligent, persons approach one with all kinds
of programs for the future — and what programs for the
future there are in the world! People think out every
imaginable thing. From the very beginning, however, these
things are not calculated to bring healing to humanity, but
rather nothing whatever or a curse — nothing whatever
if no one takes them up or a curse if people enter into them.
It is necessary to resolve only one thing and that is simply
to acquaint one's self with reality. One will then not
suppose that he can form a union or do this or that. But
people will consider themselves in duty bound to think in
harmony.with this reality whatever it is they think is real.
If only within our own Movement, at least, a goodly number of
persons would really endeavor in the right way to permeate
their soul lives with those impulses to which we have here
called your attention! If they would turn their attention
away from abstract fantastic ideals for human happiness,
would study instead the actual tasks and impulses of our own
time, and would determine their own conduct accordingly,
something would really have been attained.

Now, I have
wished once more from a special point of view to show you
today how the social question also must be studied. A person
cannot simply say, “Since I am a human being I know
mathematics, and I can, therefore, build a great railway
bridge.” He knows that he must first gain a knowledge
of mathematics, of mechanics, of dynamics. Thus must a person
learn the laws of the being of man if he wishes to have true
social judgment even in the simplest matters. People are
simply not identical in their natures over the whole earth,
as Trotsky imagines, but are at most differentiated as groups
when they belong to single peoples, or are actually
individualities. On the one hand, we must learn to understand
the characteristics of groups — for example, according
to languages, as we considered the matter today. On the other
hand, we must acquire what was brought to your attention
yesterday and that is the direct understanding of one human
individual by another. This is connected with everything that
ought to live within us in the form of social judgment and
social feeling. In other words, I have wished to acquaint you
once more from a certain point of view with what may give
direction to social judgment and a social feeling. I wanted
to call your attention to the profound seriousness of what is
called the “social question.”